AMD's Kabini Spotted Ahead of Schedule

New Samsung laptop, said to feature AMD's latest mainstream APU, wasn't expected to be available for several months.

Samsung this week launched a new laptop, the ATIV Book 9 Lite, a more affordable version of its ATIV Book 9 with many of the same features. The system is available for pre-order and will be shipping on July 28, according to Samsung.

That's all well and good, but the interesting thing here is the processor. While Samsung does not specifically identify the processor used in the system -- other than to say that it's a quad-core processor operating at up to 1.4 GHz -- online tech news site AnandTech reports that the ATIV Book 9 Lite features AMD's mainstream accelerated processing unit (APU), which was formerly codenamed Kabini.

According to Jim McGregor, founder and principal analyst at Tirias Research, the appearance of Kabini in the ATIV Book 9 Lite means that the processor is available a full quarter before it was expected.

AMD has presented details of Kabini at industry events in recent months. The company officially launched Kabini as the 2013 Mainstream APU back in May. The devices feature either two or four Jaguar CPU cores as well as GCN 8000 Series graphics. According to AMD, they claim significant increases in performance per watt and 25 percent better power efficiency compared to previous generations.

Many times in its past AMD has been hammered for designing innovative architectures but failing to get them to market in a timely way. With its APU designs it is once again driving standards for multicore processors--and now apprarently getting at least this one to market promptly, too.

Kabini has been available for purchase for a couple weeks now I believe. Temash laptops from Acer as well. I currently have an article submitted for publication on Seeking Alpha that explains my thoughts, but I would just like to add that this is not the first Kabini.